Xi, Kissinger ex­pound ties’ im­por­tance

Pres­i­dent says re­la­tion­ship gen­er­ally has moved for­ward in past 40 years

Pres­i­dent Xi Jin­ping called for co­or­di­nated ef­forts with the United States to pro­mote healthy de­vel­op­ment of Si­noUS ties.

Xi made the re­mark on Thurs­day while meet­ing with for­mer US sec­re­tary of state Henry Kissinger at the Great Hall of the Peo­ple in Bei­jing.

The pres­i­dent’s com­ment comes ahead of his planned meet­ing with US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump at the up­com­ing G20 Sum­mit in Ar­gentina.

China and the US should ex­er­cise proper judg­ment to­ward each other’s strate­gic in­ten­tions, Xi said, adding that there are ris­ing neg­a­tive voices in the US to­ward China of late, which should be taken note of.

China would like to prop­erly im­prove bi­lat­eral ties through friendly co­or­di­na­tion on the ba­sis of equal­ity and mu­tual ben­e­fit, along with the spirit of mu­tual un­der­stand­ing and com­pro­mise, Xi said.

At the same time, the US should also re­spect China’s right to choose its own de­vel­op­ment path, and walk in the same di­rec­tion with China to jointly main­tain the healthy and sta­ble de­vel­op­ment of bi­lat­eral re­la­tions, Xi added.

China up­holds the path of peace­ful de­vel­op­ment, and the coun­try main­tains its ded­i­ca­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of Sino-US re­la­tions fea­tur­ing non­con­flict, non­con­fronta­tion, mu­tual re­spect and win-win co­op­er­a­tion, Xi told the for­mer US diplo­mat.

The world to­day is un­der­go­ing an un­prece­dented chang­ing sit­u­a­tion, Xi said, adding that “a lot of things have taken place” since his last meet­ing with Kissinger two years ago.

De­spite twists and turns in the re­la­tion­ship over the past 40 years, the China-US re­la­tion­ship has gen­er­ally main­tained a sta­ble for­ward mo­men­tum, Xi said while men­tion­ing Kissinger’s con­tri­bu­tions to the es­tab­lish­ment of Sino-US diplo­matic ties in the 1970s.

Kissinger said that the US and China should bet­ter un­der­stand each other, en­hance strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tion, con­tinue to ex­pand com­mon in­ter­ests and prop­erly han­dle dis­putes.

“Now is the mo­ment I be­lieve co­op­er­a­tion be­tween China and the United States is es­sen­tial for peace and progress in the world, and I see the enor­mous con­tri­bu­tion you, Mr Pres­i­dent, have made to these ef­forts,” Kissinger said.

State Coun­cilor and For­eign Min­is­ter Wang Yi said while meet­ing with Kissinger that China and the US have far more com­mon in­ter­ests than dis­putes, and co­op­er­a­tion is their only right choice.

China and the US have high com­ple­men­tar­ity in their economies, and co­op­er­a­tion not only brings a big­ger mar- ket and pro­pel­ling force for US growth, but also cre­ates a good ex­ter­nal en­vi­ron­ment for China, Wang said.

Yang Jiechi, a mem­ber of the Po­lit­i­cal Bureau of the Com­mu­nist Party of China Cen­tral Com­mit­tee, met with John Bolton, US na­tional se­cu­rity ad­viser, in Wash­ing­ton on Wednes­day, ahead of the sec­ond round of the US-China Diplo­matic and Se­cu­rity Dia­logue, sched­uled for Fri­day.

Since Trump took of­fice, he and Xi have pro­vided strate­gic guid­ance for bi­lat­eral re­la­tions through meet­ings, tele­phone calls and let­ters, Yang said.

In their lat­est phone call, Xi and Trump had an in-depth dis­cus­sion about Sino-US re­la­tions and other ma­jor is­sues of mu­tual con­cern, and agreed to meet on the side­lines of the G20 sum­mit.

The two sides should en­hance co­or­di­na­tion and ad­vance dia­logue and co­op­er­a­tion, while prop­erly manag­ing dif­fer­ences, to make full prepa­ra­tion for the Xi-Trump meet­ing in Ar­gentina, en­sur­ing it would pro­duce “pos­i­tive out­comes”, Yang said.